An apparatus of this type for converting freshly printed sheets of security papers as bank-notes is known, in which the pile of sheets formed at the outlet of the numbering machine is cut stepwise automatically into individual bundles of finished single security papers or bills having the correct format, and each individual bundle is then surrounded by a band.
For this purpose, the piles of sheets, which generally each contain one hundred sheets in the correct sequence of numbers, are supplied manually or automatically to the feed device of a cutting station by means of a conveying device receiving the pile of sheets at the outlet of the numbering machine. In a first longitudinal cutting unit, the edges of the sheets are cut on one side of each pile of sheets arranged in the feed direction, the direction of travel of which pile is then changed by 90.degree., so that the side of the pile located opposite the cut edge now becomes the new front side. A second cutting unit firstly cuts the edges on this front side of the pile of sheets and then divides this pile of sheets into bundle strips by subsequent cuts. A third longitudinal cutting unit then cuts the edge on a short side of each bundle strip located in the conveying direction, which bundle strip then changes its conveying direction by 90.degree. such that the short side located opposite the edge cut last now becomes the front side. Finally, a fourth transverse cutting unit firstly cuts this front side of each bundle strip and then divides the bundle strip by subsequent cuts into individual bundles of bank-notes. These bundles of bank-notes then pass one behind the other at a distance apart to a banding station, in which they are surrounded individually one after the other by a band.
The finished bound bundles of bank-notes are then made into packs of bank-notes, which generally comprise ten bundles each with one hundred bank notes, i.e. one thousand bank notes in all.
If, when producing the packs of bundles, the sequence of numbers of the bank-notes is to be preserved, then corresponding sorting of the bundles of bank-notes is necessary before they are packed in packs, because as a rule, the sequence of numbers within one bundle is not a continuation of the sequence of numbers in the preceding bundle. Numbering machines for sheets of multiple bank-notes generally operate such that identical bank-note positions on successive sheets are numbered in succession, whereas the bank-note positions on one and the same sheet can be distinguished by the serial number or the higher places of the numbers. Therefore, if twenty eight bank-note positions are provided on one sheet of bank-notes for example, that is to say seven rows each with four printed bank-notes, then for the subsequent packing of ten bundles of bank-notes, the first, the twenty ninth, the fifty seventh etc. then the second, the thirtieth, the fifty eighth etc. must be combined in order to obtain packs each with one thousand consecutively numbered bank-notes, which belong to a specific series of one thousand notes. An automatic apparatus is already known for this sorting operation, before packing the bundles of bank-notes.
Furthermore, it is customary for an inspector to check the freshly printed sheets of bank-notes for printing errors, before they are cut up and to provide each faulty printed bank-note with a mark for the purpose of subsequent elimination. The afore-mentioned known apparatus for converting sheets of bank-notes is arranged so that the bound individual bundles pass a detector system, which responds to the afore-mentioned marks and that furthermore, a removal device controlled by the fault signal of this detector system is provided, which removes the bundles of bank-notes containing at least one incorrectly printed note, from the conveying arrangement. A detector system of this type may operate inductively for example and in this case it is desirable to choose a marking material which varies the inductive properties of the bank-note accordingly. The empty space formed in the conveying sequence by the elimination of a bundle of bank-notes can be filled by a satisfactory bundle of bank-notes before the formation of the packs of bundles to be packed. This bundle of bank-notes which is inserted may be a replacement bundle with satisfactory bank-notes. However, the bundle of bank-notes eliminated may travel through a bank-note-exchange station, in which each individual faulty bank-note is replaced by a satisfactory numbered replacement bank-note. Subsequently, this re-formed bundle of bank-notes can be re-inserted at the correct point in the conveying sequence, before the banding or packing station for the packs of bundles.
Now according to experience, the capacity of such an apparatus for converting freshly printed sheets of bank-notes, operating largely automatically, is limited substantially by the maximum possible operating speed of the banding station for the individual bundles of bank-notes. At least two seconds are necessary for wrapping the band around the bundle of bank-notes and for reliable sticking of the latter, which period of time cannot be reduced in practice. This means that with the afore-described known apparatus, at best, approximately thirty bundles per minute, or, since a bundle generally contains one hundred bank-notes, approximately 180,000 bank-notes per hour can be handled.
However, modern printing and numbering machines for bank-notes recently have an output of 8,000 to 10,000 sheets per hour. If each sheet contains fifty individual notes, then these machines facilitate the production of 400,000 to 500,000 bank-notes per hour, which corresponds to approximately sixty six to eighty three bundles of bank-notes per minute, presupposing that each bundle contains one hundred bank notes. Since the known apparatus is only able to handle thirty bundles per minute at the maximum, only half the full capacity of modern rotary printing machines can therefore be used in conjunction with the known apparatus for converting the sheets of bank-notes.